Apparatus for aerial machines, nautical ships, vehicles, and other purposes.



J. W. CLOUD. APPARATUS FOR AERIAL MACHINES, NAU'IIGAL SHIPS, VEHICLES, AND OTHER PURPOSES. v

APPLICATION FILED MAB..9, 1909.

Patented Aug. 23, 1910.

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J. W. CLOUD. APPARATUS FOR AERIAL MACHINES, NAUTIGAL SHIPS, VEHICLES, AND OTHER PURPOSES.

APPLIOATION FILED MAILS, 1909.

Patented Aug. 23, 1910.

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| L Lum ATTORNEY |N FACT VV TNESSESI MM/A J. W. CLOUD. APPARATUS PoE AERIAL MACHINES, NAUTIGAL SHIPS, VEHICLES, AND OTHER PURPOSES.

APPLICATION FILED MAILS, 1909.

Patented Aug. 23, 1910.

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INVE T La@ [LGR ATTORNEY IN FACT.

UNITED srArEs PATENT onirica.-

JOHN WILLS CLOUD, OF LONDON, ENGLAND.

APPARATUS Pon AERIAL MACHINES, NAUTICAL SHIPS, VEHICLES, Aimv oTHEa PURPOSES.

To all whom it may concern: l

Be it known that I, JOHN VVILLS CLOUD, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of London, England, have made a new and useful Invention in Im-` provements .Relating to Apparatus for Aerial Machines, Nautical Ships, Vehicles, and other Purposes, of which the following is a specification. Y

This invention relates to the propulsion of vessels for navigating the air and its object is to provide and arrange mechanism of propulsion so that all of the main defiecting forces which are set up by the operation of the engines or motors and by the moving mechanism connected thereto shall at all times be as nearly counterbalanced as may be possible by equal forces of the same nature and similar origin acting in the op posite directiom'so that there shall be practically no resultant deflecting forces arising from the mechanism or from its motion at any time, and there remains to be dealt with only its gravity which is balanced -by the buoyant effort of the air and the direct propulsive effort.

A Vessel navigating the air is in such delicate balance in all directions that its course and its position are very much affected by small disturbing forces. It becomes therefore of essential importance that no un balanced disturbing forces should be generated by the movements of the mechanism of propulsion, and numerous accidents have recently occurred as a result of such unbalanced deflecting forces being developed.

When reciprocating engines are employed to drive the propelling machinery, the main deflecting forces which are developed and which by this invention I design to counterbalance may be enumerated under vthe following heads. lst. Forces arising from the reciprocating masses of the engines. 2nd.

Forces arising from the reactions of theV rotary forces applied to the cranks. 3rd. Forces arising from the reaction of the gases escaping from the cylinders. 4th. Forces arising from rotary masses when the direction of theaxes of rotation is changed.

It has already been suggested to balance some of these forces, for example, it has Ibeen proposed to arrange the cylinders of multi-cylinder reciprocating engines in particular positions with reference ,to each other Specification of Letters Patent.

Appnation :nea March 9, 1909. serial No. 482,366.

Patented Aug. 23, 1910.

and to provide balance weights in order that the forces set up by the inertia of the reciprocating parts shall be balanced. It has also been proposed to balance the rotational forces due tothe reaction of the effort on the crank pinby utilizing two cylinders located side by side and having their combustion chambers connected,'the pistons of the cylinders being connected to separate crank shafts rotating inopposite directions. The fourth set of forces, namely those developed when the angular direction of the crank shaft axis is changed may be balanced by means such as described in application for Letters Patent Serial No. 450364 made on the 26th August 1908. -It has never so far as I am aware been proposed to take account of all of these disturbing elements in aero plane mechanism and to balance the rotating parts, and my present invention consists in so constructing and arranging the engines and the devices -tobe rotated that all of the disturbing forces above mentioned shall be as nearly as possible approximately counterbalanced.

According to my invention, vessels for navigating the air are characterized by duplicate sets of engines the cylinders of one set having their axes parallel with the corresponding cylinders of the other set. These engines drive parallel crank shafts which are geared together so as to rotate at the same speed but in opposite directions and drive lthe propeller shafts. The reciprocating parts of the engines are balanced and the pistons of corresponding cylinders driving each shaft are acted upon by similar propelling forces and are arranged tomove in similar directions at all times so that no resultant couple will arise from the reac tions of the forces exerted on the cranks. The rotary momentum of the various wheels, shafts and propellers rotating in one direction is also made substantially equal to the rotary momentum of the wheels, shafts land propellers rotating in the opposite direction, in order to prevent any resultant deiiecting forces being developed when the direction of the axis of rotation of the various. parts is changed. By making these arrangements I insure that the whole of the machinery shall be completely balanced under all conditions of operation.

In order that my invention may be mediate cranks.

clearly understood I have shown in the accompanying drawings, by way of example, how it may be carried out in practice.

Figure 1 is aplan of the engines and propelling shafts in `which four pairs of cylinders are provided for driving the propellers. Fig. 2 is a side elevation. Fig. 3 is a section on the line III-III Fig. 1 drawn' to an enlarged scale. Fig. 4 is a skeleton plan showing another arrangement of the propeller shafts and Fig. 5 is an end view of the same.

Referring now to Figs. 1 to 3, one set of engines comprising the cylinders 1, 2, 3, 4 is arranged to drive the shaft 5 and a duplicate set of cylinders 6, 7, 8, 9 is arranged opposite to them driving the parallel shaft 10, the shafts 5 and 10 are gearedtogether by spur wheels 11, 12 so as to rotate at the same speed in opposite directions. The pistons of corresponding cylinders, namely 1 and 6, 2 and 7, 3 and 8, 4 and 9 are arranged so as to exert their driving forces at the same moment, this will be clear from an inspection of Fig. 3 which shows a section of the cylinders 4 and 9, and it will be seen that the pistons 13 and 14 of these cylinders are both at the top of the stroke, and also the combustion chambers of the cylinders 'are connected together by a passage 15 and have a common inlet valve 16. It will be seen that `the reactive force impressed upon one cylinder due to the force exerted upon the crank pin by its piston will be balanced by the reactive effect due to the force exerted on the crank pin by the piston of the corresponding cylinder, consequently there will be no resultant force tending to rotate the engine frame or the frame which carries it; the same will be true of each pair of cylinders and consequently will apply to the entire duplicate set of engines. Considering the cylinders of one set as shown inJFig. 2 it will be seen that the pistons 14, 17 of the extreme cylinders 9, 6, occupy similar positions and the pistons 18, 19 of the two intermediate cylinders 7, 8 occupy also similar positions but at the opposite end of the cylinders, in other Words the extreme end cranks are at an angle of 180 with the two intermediate cranks, by this means the reciprocating movements of the pistons and parts connected therewith of all the cylinders will be balanced about a point 2O midway between the two inter- The engines in this arrangement are internal combustion engines Working upon a four-stroke cycle, such as the well known Otto cycle, and the explosions may be arranged to occur in the cylinders in the following order, namely, 6 and 1, 8 and 3, 9 and'4, 7 and 2, by this means an impulse every half revolution of the crank shaft will be obtained.

The exhaust ports of the cylinders 1, 2, 3,

4 forming rone set lead into a common exhaust pipe 21 and the exhaust ports of the cylinders 6, 7, 8, 9, of the other set lead into a similar exhaust pipe 22, these pipes being symmetrically arranged on each side of the axis of the combined engines and arranged to deliver the exhaust gases in a similar direction so that no resultant couple will arise from the expulsion of such exhaust gases. The exhaust gases can be expelled in other directions than in the fore and aft directions shown, provided that the final exit port-s of both sets of cylinders are arranged ,to force the gasesin such directions that no resultant couple is produced by the reactions.

The propeller shafts, of which there are two, are located concentrically in the arrangement shown in Figs. 1 to 3, the inner shaft 23 is provided With a spur gear 24 driven from the pinion 25 on the crank shaft 5; said shaft 23 is furnished with a propeller 26; the outer shaft which is, of

course, made tubular so as to contain the inner shaft, is indicated at 27 and is prolvided with a spur gear 28 which engages with a pinion 29 on the crank shaft 10. The propeller carried by the tubular shaft 27 is indicated at 30. As the two propeller shafts are rotated in opposite directions, the pitch of the one propeller must be opposite to that of the other propeller as shown. The thrust of the inner propeller shaft 23 in the for- Ward direction is taken direct by the bearing 31 and the thrust of the outer tubular shaft 27 is taken by the same bearing being transmitted through the hub of the spur wheel 24. The rearward thrust of the two shafts is ltaken by the bearing 32, that of the shaft 23 being transmitted from the hub of the wheel 24 through the flange 33 of the shaft 27 and thence through the hub of the wheel 28. The rotary momentum of the crank` shaft 5,' gear wheel 25 and other parts rotating co-axially therewith is made equal to the rotary momentum of the crank shaft 10, gear Wheel 29 and parts rotating co-axially with said shaft, also the rotary momentum of the propeller 26, shaft 23 and spur wheel 24 is made equal to the rotary momentum of the propeller 30, tubular shaft 27 and spur wheel 28, by this means since the shafts 5 and 10 rotate in opposite directions at the same speed and the propellers 26 and 30 also rotate in opposite directions at the saine speed, there will be no resultant forces set up when the direction of the axis of the parts is changed.

In place of mounting the two propellers on co-axial shafts I may mount them dishown in Figs. 4 and 5 Where the propeller shafts 34, 35 are connected by gear chains 36, 37 to the crank shafts 5 and 10 respectively. The propellershafts will in this case be similar in all respects but will be arranged to rotatein opposite directions so as to avoid the development of any resulta-nt force when the direction of the axis of the machine is changed. The framework supporting the,

the 8 cylinders hereinbefore described. In,

such a case the reciprocating partsshould each be separately balanced by suitable balance Weights arranged opposite the' cranks, but it may be observed that these "balance weights should be symmetrically located on each side of the center line of the cylinder in order to avoid any unbalancing on an axis at right angles to the crank shaft. Any known form of engine may be employed for the purpose of my invention provided the principles above enunciated are adhered to.

I have already said that'some of the deiecting forces above referred to have long been counterbalanced but I am not aware that any construction has heretofore been proposed for this purpose which .combines the counterbalancing of all these forces in the way which I describe and which is of prlmary importance in mechanism for the propulsion of vehicles for navigating the air.

I claim as my invention: l. In a vessel for navigating the air, the

combination of a reciprocating engine the reciprocating parts of which are balanced, a shaft driven thereby, a second reciprocating engine similar to the firstmentioned engine, having the center line of its cylinder parallel with that of the cylinder of the first engine, and with its piston arranged to move in similar directions at the same time as the piston of the first engine, a shaft driven by said second engine parallel with the shaft of the first engine, gearing conneeting the engine shafts for insuring their rotation at the same speed in opposite directions, and prop-ellers rotated by said shafts.

2. In a vessel for navigating the air, the combination of a reciprocating engine the reciprocating parts of which are balanced, a shaft driven by said engine, a second engine similar to the first-mentioned engine, a shaft driven by said second engine parallel with the shaft of the irst engine, means whereby the pistons driving each shaft are acted upon by similar propelling forces and are forced to move in similar directions at the -first-mentioned engine, a shaft driven by sain-e time, gearing connecting the engine shaftsl for insuring their rotation at the same speed in opposite directions and propellers rotated by said shafts.

3. In vessel for navigating the air, the combination of a reciprocating engine the reciprocating parts of which are balanced, a shaft driven thereby, a second reciprocating engine similar to the first-mentioned engine, a shaft driven by said second engine parallel with the shaft ofthe first-mentioned engine, gearing connecting the engine shafts for insuring their rotation at the same speed in opposite directions, propeller shafts parallel with the engine shafts, and gearing connecting the propeller shafts severally with the engine shafts.

4. In a vessel for navigating the air the combination of a multi-cylinder reciprocating engine the reciprocating parts of which are balanced, a shaft driven thereby, a sec' ond reciprocating engine similar to and hav.- ing its cylinders ,arranged opposite the cyl inders of the first mentioned engine, a shaft driven by said second engine parallelto the shaft of the irst engine, means whereby the pistons of one engine are acted upon by similar propelling forces and are forced to move in similar directions at the same time as the corresponding pistons o f the other 95 engine, gearing connecting the engine shafts for insuring their rotation at the same speed in opposite directions and propellers rotated by said shafts.

5. In a vessel for navigating the air, the

vcombination of a multi-cylilider reciprocating engine the' reciprocating parts of which balance each other, a shaft driven thereby,

a second reciprocating engine similar to the said second engine parallel with the shaft of the first engine, gearing connecting the engine shafts for insuring their rotation at the same speed in opposite directions, and propeller shafts rotatably connected with the engine shafts, the rotary momentum of .the parts rotating in one direction being equal to the rota-ry momentum of the parts rotating in lthe other direction.

6. In a vessel for navigating the air, the combination of a reciprocating engine the reciprocating parts of which are balanced,

a shaft driven thereby, a second reciprocating engine similar to the first-mentioned engine, exhaust pipes for said engines arranged so that the'niovement of the exhaust gases from one engine balances the move` ment of the exhaust gases from the other engine, a shaft driven by the second engine parallel with the shaft of the first engine, gearing connecting the engine shafts for insuring their rotation in opposite directions, and propellers rotated by said shafts.

7. In a vessel for navigating the air, the combination of a reciprocating engine the reciprocating parts of which are balanced, a

shaft driven thereby, a second reciprocating engine similar to the first-mentioned engine, exhaust pipes for said engines arranged so that the movement of the exhaust gases from one engine balances the movement of the exhaust gases from the other engine, a shaft driven by said second engine parallel with the shaft of the first engine, means whereby the pistons driving each shaft are acted upon by similar propelling forces and are forced to move in similar directions at the samev time, gearing connecting the engine shafts for insuring their-rotation in opposite direc.- tions, and propellers rotated by said shafts.

49. In a vessel for navigating the air, the combination of a reciprocating engine the reciprocating parts of which are balanced, a shaft driven thereby, a second reciprocating engine similar to the first-mentioned engine, exhaust pipes for said engines arranged so that the movement ofthe exhaust gases from one engine balances the movement of the exhaust gases from the other engine, a shaft driven by said second engine parallel with the shaft of the first engine, means whereby the 'pistons driving each shaft are acted upon by similar propelling forces and are forced to move in similar directions at the same time, gearing connecting the engine shafts for insuring their rotation in opposite directions, and propellers rotated by said shafts, the rotary momentum of the parts'rotating in one direction being equal tothe rotary momentum of the parts rotating in the other direction.

10. In a vessel for navigating the air, the combination of a reciprocating engine the reciprocating parts of which are balanced, a shaft driven thereby, a second reciprocat ing engine similar to the first-mentioned engine, a shaft driven by said second engine parallel with the shaft of the rst-mentioned engine, gearing connecting the engine shafts for linsuring their rotation at the same speed in opposite directions, co-axial propeller shafts parallel with the engine shafts, and gearing connecting the pro eller shafts severally with the engine sha ts.

11. In a vessel for navigating the air, the

combination of a reciprocating engine the reciprocating parts of which are balanced,-

shafts and connecting the same, to insure' their rotation in opposite directions, propeller shafts and gearing rotated at the other end of the engine shafts connecting them severally to the .propeller shafts so that the propeller shafts rotate at the same speed in opposite directions.

12. In a vessel for navigating the air, the combination of a multi-cylinder reciprocating engine the reciprocatmg parts of which are arranged to balance each other, a shaft driven thereby, a second engine similar to the first-mentioned engine, a shaft driven by said second engine parallel with the shaft of the rst engine, exhaust pipes for said engines arranged so that the movement of the exhaust gases from `one engine' balances the movement of the exhaust gases from the other engine, means whereby the pistons driving each shaft are acted upon by similar propelling forces and are forced to move in similar dlrections at the same time, gearing connecting the engine shafts for insuring their rotation in opposite directions and propellers rotated by said shafts, the rotary momentum of the parts rotating in one d1- rection being equal to the rotary momentum of the parts rotating in the other direction. 13. In a vessel for navigating the air, the combination of a multi-cylinder reciprocating engine the reciprocating parts of which are arranged to balance each other, a shaft driven thereby, a second engine similar to the first-mentioned engine, a shaft driven b said second engine parallel with the sha of the first engine, exhaust pipes for said ioo engines symmetrically arranged on each side of the axis of the combined'enginesfand delivering the exhaust 'gases'in the same direction, means whereby the pistons driving each shaft are acted upon by similar propelling forces and are forcedv to move in similar directions at the same time, gearing connecting, the engine shafts for insurin their rotation in opposite directions, an propellers rotated by said shafts, the rotary momentum of the parts rotating in one direction being equal to the rotary momentum of the parts rotating in the other direction.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto subscribed my name this 24th day of February 1909.

OSCAR J. F. THoRrE, e ALAN P. HAoKwooD. 

